We have written TWO recent articles about the latest changes made by the R&A at St Andrews. Unlike most previous years where they are making subtle changes to the rules via amendments and appendices,the latest changes apply to general rules of golf used by all golfers in an average round of golf. Without going into too much details the basic rule changes are: Only 3 minutes to search for a lost ball,play ready golf,no penalty for hitting the flag when on the putting green,repairs of spike marks on greens now permitted,grounding a club in a hazard now permitted,grounding of a club in a bunker now allowed BUT not when playing a shot,drop a ball for 2 shot penalty when out of bounds rather than play three from the tee,no penalty for a double hit of the ball,free and penalty drops now taken from knee height,distance for free and penalty drops remain the same but can be meassured with any club in the bag except the putter and an unplayable lie can be taken in a bunker allowing the ball to be dropped out of the bunker for a two shot penalty. Every player should be aware and put into practice these new rules. Have you ever thought why there are so many rules and appendices to rules? The reason is that there is always someone ready to bend and twist the existing rules to to their benefit. Just to highlight this there are a number of short videos on facebook showing tournament professionals practising a deliberate double hit when route to the hole is blocked by a tree. There is one last element of the new rules missing here in that the rules refer to the integrity and trust placed on the golfer. Looks like that element of the new rules is being tested by players who should be ashamed of themselves particularly high profile tournament professionals.
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